Online Safety

The internet is an important and dominant element of modern Britain for education and social interaction. The requirement for internet use in education in the UK is to promote pupil achievement, to support the professional work of staff and to enhance the school’s management, information and business administration systems. Benefits include:

access to worldwide resources and research materials

access to experts in many fields

staff Continued Professional Development (CPD) such as access to online learning and forums

communication with support services, professional associations and colleagues

exchange of curricular and administration data for the school to discharge it’s statutory reporting obligations to UK Government

The National Curriculum requires pupils to learn how to locate, retrieve and exchange information using computers and a variety of software. In delivering the curriculum teachers at Meopham Community Academy need to plan to integrate the use of computing and web-based resources to enrich learning activities. Effective internet use is an essential life-skill. With this comes the responsibility of Meopham Community Academy as an educational institution to keep all of our staff and children safe when using the internet on our premises. We follow online safety guidance provided to us by Kent County Council and the Education Safeguarding adviser.

At Meopham Community Academy, we believe that keeping our children safe when using the amazing resources available on the World Wide Web is of the utmost importance. As part of our Computing curriculum all children from Foundation Stage to Year Six follow our practises detailed in our school Online Safety Policy (link below). The information we have published here on our Online Safety pages are provided to assist parents, carers and children alike to make informed decisions and judgements on how to safely and responsibly access the wonderful world-wide resource which is the internet.

Meopham Community Academy uses

Digital Parenting Magazine

from Vodafone.com

Digital Parenting magazine has helped millions of families get to grips with the digital world and we’re pleased to announce that Issue 6 is out now!

We have ordered hard copies for all the children and staff and these will be with us in Term 2 2017. They will go home with your children in their school bags once they arrive.

In the meantime, you can read Issue 6 (the latest) online or download it to read later via the Vodafone/Digital Parenting website. Click on the latest issue below to take you to the Vodafone Digital Parenting Magazine page.

This is a very useful and informative magazine full of top tips for parents and children for keeping safe online as well as keeping readers up-to-date with all the latest news on digital software developments relating to online safety.

Miss Nicholson (Safeguarding Lead)

Responsible Internet Use

To keep our children safe online at school we ask each child and parent to read and sign our Responsible Internet Use Policy.

Safer Internet Day 2018 at Meopham Community Academy

What is Safer Internet Day?

Safer Internet Day is celebrated globally in February each year to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for children and young people and inspire a national conversation.

Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre the celebration sees hundreds of organisations get involved to help promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

Globally, Safer Internet Day is celebrated in over a hundred countries, coordinated by the joint Insafe/INHOPE network, with the support of the European Commission, and national Safer Internet Centres across Europe.

The day offers the opportunity to highlight positive uses of technology and to explore the role we all play in helping to create a better and safer online community. It calls upon young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers, and wider, to join together in helping to create a better internet.

Meopham Community Academy will be getting involved on the 6th February and our work with the children will be centred around the theme of online safety. More details will be announced shortly as well as photos and information from the day posted on this page. In the meantime, check out what we did last year for SID 2017 below...

Mr Filewod, Computing Subject Leader

Safer Internet Day 2017

On Tuesday 7th February 2017, Meopham Community Academy recognised and celebrated Safer Internet Day 2017.

Co-ordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre the celebration sees hundreds of organisations including schools get involved to help promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people. The theme for this nationally-recognised day was Be the change: unite for a better internet

The day offered us the opportunity to highlight positive uses of technology and to explore the role we all play in helping to create a better and safer online community. The day calls upon young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers, and wider, to join together in helping to create a better internet.

To mark the day, we held special assemblies for both KS1 and KS2 and the children produced pieces of work all about Safer Internet Day 2017. Please take a look at our gallery below for some of the work we produced for Safer Internet Day 2017.